National Center for Education Statistics
August 2002
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) used its "fast response survey system" to develop this report on alternative schools and kindred programs operating within public school systems. These turn out to be fairly widespread-almost 11,000 such schools and programs running in 39 percent of school systems and serving some 613,000 youngsters, mostly at the secondary level. You can learn a lot about these exceptionally varied programs from this report, including their entrance and exit criteria, the nature of their offerings, staffing and arrangements with other agencies. You cannot, however, learn some things you might find most interesting, such as how they are administered and how many are outsourced to private operators. You'll find a PDF copy at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002004.pdf.
